The present invention relates to an archery stabilizer, and in particular to improvements in the weight and damping ability of an archery bow equipped with one or more stabilizers.
It is well know that in shooting an arrow by an archery bow, the arrow behaves in a manner which is generally known as "an archery paradox". That is, in the drawn position the shaft of the arrow is strongly pressed near its tip against the wall of the sight window of the bow so that it flexes convexly with respect to the grip. In reaction to being released from the drawing position, the shaft of the arrow undergoes a secondary flexion which is concave with respect to the grip. Thereafter, the arrow advances while alternately flexing in these opposing directions.
For the arrow to fly smoothly and accurately in the intended direction, the bow must exhibit a delicate reaction in response to the above-described initial behavior of the arrow. Should the bow not react, the arrow will flex alternately and, hence, will be unable to achieve a stable, accurate flight.
In order to avoid this difficulty, it has been proposed to attach a stabilizer to each limb of an archery bow. The attachment of such stabilizers increases the moment of inertia of the bow, so that the bow exhibits a delicate reaction in response to the initial behavior of an arrow as it is released. Such increased moment of inertia enables the vibration of the bow caused by tremors of the archer and movement of the stabilizer swing rods to be absorbed.
In a common construction of a conventional stabilizer, a relatively heavy damper head is attached to the distal end of a swing rod and the proximal end of the swing rod is attached to one limb of an archery bow via a damper unit. The damper unit includes a hollow, cylindrical housing closed at one end and a threaded shaft fixed to the closed end and adapted for screw engagement with the handle of the bow. A first elastic piece made, for example, of rubber is tightly fit into the cylindrical housing. A rod carrier inserted into the cylindrical housing in contact with the first elastic piece is embraced by a second elastic piece. Finally, a fastener ring is placed in screw engagement with the open end of the cylindrical housing. The proximate end of the swing rod is inserted idly through the fastener ring and into axial screw engagement with the rod carrier. By adjusting the position of the fastener ring on the cylindrical housing, the degree to which the first and second elastic pieces are compressed may be altered, thereby enabling control of the swing amplitude of the swing rod and associated damper head.
In the construction of conventional stabilizers discussed above, the weight of the swing rod and associated damper head is borne only by the end-to-end contact of the rod carrier with the first elastic piece, the swing rod being allowed to move with the rod carrier. Consequently, the swing rod has very poor damping ability. In order to overcome this disadvantage, an increased area of contact must be provided between the rod carrier and the first elastic piece. This inevitably leads to a damper unit having an enlarged size and, therefore, the total weight of the archery stabilizer is increased. Such an increased total weight prevents the archery bow from having a wide range of moment of inertia. In addition, such an increased total weight induces early fatigue in the archer's arm upon prolonged play, thereby preventing proper control during shooting.